No matter what Lieutenant Aldo Raine and Quentin Tarantino may have done for the war movie, World War II is still not hip with American moviegoers apparently. Joel Silver has spent 20 years trying to make a movie based on the DC Comics Sgt. Rock character, and only now, by setting the movie in the future, has he actually pulled it off.
According to THR, I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence will take over on Sgt. Rock, with Akiva Goldsman writing the script and producing as well. Sgt. Rock had always been a World War II character in the comics, even though he debuted in 1958, near the beginning of the Vietnam War. THR notes that Sgt. Rock had been a symbol of American jingoism, and that even G.I. Joe was getting out of that racket, having dropped the "Real American Hero" tag in the latest movie.
There's no telling if they'll set the new Sgt. Rock in space or just in a futuristic America, but this will definitely be one of the looser adaptations of comic book material so far. Can they get away with it because Sgt. Rock is a lesser-known character? Or are there World War II purists out there, ready to have cow over this news?
